Stephen's Story
Day 7
Today we woke up early to go for a day-long RZR ride on the Alpine loop. It takes you around the sides of mountains and there are multiple mining spots on the mountain that were used in the 1800s. The summit was about 12,400 feet and it was not as cold as you might think. It was actually very nice. The only bad part is that in Colorado it rains very heavily but only for about 5 mins throughout the day so there was enough rain to where it was a little muddy and it shows because we all get muddy and the RZR got the worst of it. We had lunch, which was burgers and a bad salad for myself, which I later regretted because I felt like crap on my run right after the ride. I only ran 3 miles because I couldn’t breathe and the pain from not running for a while really got to me hard QUICKLY. Then we had pollo asada for dinner after my run, I felt pretty bad for a couple of hours after it so I just laid down on my bed. We sat outside enjoying the fire and then I went to bed after drinking a lot of water. Right after I got to bed the sheriff came and gave my dad a ticket for having a propane fire when it is a fire danger. At least it wasn’t a $5k fine like Flagstaff has. The good news is that we get to sleep in and have a nice breakfast because we are going on a little bike ride in the morning and a short RZR ride.
Amber's Story
July 2, 2021 – Friday
Since not all of the Fourth of July traffic was here yet, we decided it would be the best day to do the full Alpine Loop. We set out a little after nine and went all the way from Silverton, through Eureka to Lake City and back down to Silverton. We saw the old Animas Jail, various old house from the early 1900’s and several old mining operations. In addition to all the buildings, we saw more beautiful waterfalls than I could count, the Animas River at every turn and so many gorgeous mountains still covered in snow. This ride was the most picturesque RZR ride I had ever been on. If you haven’t been here, it’s a must do with a Jeep or side by side. There were spots that were a bit sketchy because the road is only narrow enough for one vehicle yet vehicles were going in different directions and there were parts where I thought I was going to fall of the side of a cliff.
We stopped in the little town of Lake City and had lunch. While we were eating, we had a typical Colorado torrential downpour that lasted about 10 minutes. Our seats were soaked in the side by sides but the trail was not very dusty as a result. We all made it safely home at about 4:30. Kyle proceeded to ride his mountain bike and made $1 for doing wheelies all the way through camp. We got lots of new neighbors who all happen to be from Arizona and we spent a bunch of time chatting with them. After dinner we sat around the propane fire pits (there are only rocks in our camp) to warm up and after I went to bed, the camp had a visit from a sheriff’s deputy who gave out two tickets for the propane pits. The office advised us they were allowed but apparently, they were not and the deputy who issued the tickets was less than pleasant. In the process of getting a ticket, Mike misjudged the last step of the motorhome and injured his foot. It’s now swollen and he has quite the limp.